Inherent-power return signaling device.



W. K. HOWE.

' INHERENT POWER RETURN SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.6,1911.

1,125,541. Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

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FIG. I.

ATTORN Y.

THE NORRIS PETERS C0,, PHOTOJJTHG, WASH/NON. D. C.

w. K. HOWE. v INHERENT POWER RETURN SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 6,1911.

1,125,541. Patented Jan.19, 1915.

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FIG. 2

THE NORRIS PETERS C0A FHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON, D. C.

v INVENTOR. I

; ATTORNE W. K. HOWE. 'INHERENT POWER RETURN SIGNALING DEVICE.

' APPLICATION FILED MAB..6,1911.

1,125,541 Patented Jams, 1915.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

, WITNESSES:

, INVENTOR.

W. K. HOWE.

INHERENT POWBR RETURN SIGNALING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED MAR.B,1911.

1,125,541 Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

. SHEETS-SHEET 4.

WITNESSES v 2: 021v Vb N 7:018. W 1.7% By :9 M

ATTORN THE NORRIS PETERS PHOTO LIITIO- WASHING TON. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENTiQF-FICE.

VVINTHROP K. HOIVE, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL RAILWAY SIGNAL COMPANY, OF GATES, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

INHERENT-POVJER RETURN SIGNALING DEVICE.

Application filed March 6, 1911.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WINTHROP K. HOWE, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Inherent-Power Return Signaling Device, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the devices employed in railway signaling, to govern the position of a semaphore'anol more particularly, to the construction and arrangement of the means used to cause motion of the armature of a relay device and the means used to cause a turning torque in the motor employed to oscillate a semaphore.

The primary object of this invention is to produce such an arrangement of energizing means acting upon the movable element connected with the relay contact or semaphore as will absolutely insure the movement of the contact of the relay device or the semaphore as the case may be, so as to break the contact made by the relay device or set the semaphore at danger by the positive operation of an energizing current acting upon the movable element connected to the relay contact or the semaphore unless an overpowering'current acting in the contrary direction and'causedto flow by the existence of safety conditions causes therelay contactvto make or the semaphore to be set at clear. Heretofore in the practical art it a track circuit was shunted by the entrance of V a pair of'wheels'on a common axle onto the block governing the relay, entire rellance has been placed upon gravity alone to open the normally closed armature contact of the relay. Heretofore in the practical art when the current energizing the motor used to clear the signal ceased, entire reliance has been placed upon the action of gravity or current fed through the back point of a track relay to return the semaphore signal to its danger indication. By the use of this invention, a relay contact may be made to break and a semaphore may be caused to return to danger indication irrespective of the action of gravity or external means. Such afresult obtainable by practical and simple means has'been long sought by those skilled in the artof railway signaling, for the managers of railroads having constantly increased their demands since the advent Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

Serial No. 612,530.

of signaling in this country some are now requiring that all movable parts, the failure of which to move, would cause a false clear signal, must be positively moved from a position causing a clear signal to a position causing a danger signal by a means superior in their action to that of mere gravity, and have at the same time required that, that which may be accomplished by gravity must if it is necessary to employ large masses to cause the operation by mere gravity have substituted therefor some other means of accomplishing the same object which does not necessitate the employment of large masses with the consequent great inertia of parts.

This invention then, has for a further object, construction of the character stated such that all moving parts are light and of little inertia and are not required to return to the position which they would assume under the action of gravity by the mere action of gravity, but are caused to return to said posit-ion by a positive actuating means other than gravity.

A further object of the invention is to so construct the apparatusand arrange the circuits that the failure of the circuit which causes the movement to danger position will give notice of its disarrangement in a very decided manner as it will absolutely pre vent the giving of the clear indication of the semaphore.

A further object of the invention is to so construct a semaphore actuating mechanism of the class described that a hammer blow will be given the semaphore when the mechanism returns it to normal position, thus freeing it from any obstacle such as snow and ice.

The invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangements herein shown, described and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail reference will be had to the accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate similar parts throughout the several views in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing an application ofthe invention when single phase alternating current is employed for signaling. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing an application of the invention when a three wire three phase alternating current is used for signaling. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing an application of the invention when a direct current is employed. Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the arrangement of circuits when a three phase three wire system is employed but the motors are split phase. Fig. 5 is an end view of a semaphore shaft coupling. Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view of the coupling in place.

U0nstructz'0n.1 and 2 designate the two rails of a railway track which is divided into block sections by the insulating joints 3; 4

designates an electrically propelled car which travels on the rails 1 and 2 deriving its pro pulsion current from a trolley wire 5 connected to a source of alternating propulsion current 6 at a terminal station, the other side of the source being connected by the wire 7 to the middle point of a reactance bond 8, whose ends are connected to the two rails 1 and 2, whichserve as a return path for the propulsion current, being enabled to do this by virtue of the well known T bonds 9 connected to the rails in the usual manner at the insulating joints 3. 10 designates a source of alternating signaling current to which are connected the distributing mains 11- and 12, extending from one terminal of the road to the other, and having connected thereto at each signal location the primary winding 13 of a transformer. The secondary windings 14 and 15 are connected to and supply energy to the motor to move a signal, a local phase of a track relay and also impress a difference of potential upon the two rails of a preceding block section through the wires 16 and 17 and the adjustable ohmic resistance 18. The track phase of the relay is designated by 19 and is connected to both rails of the track through the adjustable ohmic resistance 20.

Y The relay is of the ordinary rotary polyphase induction type with a shell armature 21, bearing the contacting piece 21 22 indicates the local phase of the relay deriving current from the secondary winding 15 of the transformer by means of the wires 23 and 24, and in series with which is placed the reactance 25. In parallel with coil 22 is coil 26, which is displaced in space from coil 22, being wound on the same pole piece with coil 19 but reversely, and having in series with it the ohmic resistance 27; 21 the contact arm of the armature bears against a fixed contact whensuflicient current flows in coil 19, which contact arm forms part of the circuit in which is included the clearing coil 28 for the semaphore 29, the energizing current being derived by means of the wires 23 and 30 from the secondary winding 15, said coil 28 having in series with it the circuit breaker 31 operated by the movement of the semaphore 29 and closed when the semaphore; issat danger indication, and. open,

when the semaphore is at clear; 32 is an inductive resistance in parallel with the circuit breaker 31; 33 designates a coil wound on the same pole piece as 28 but reversely and through an ohmic resistance 34 derives current by means of wires 23 and 35 from secondary 15; 36 designates a coil wound on a pole piece displaced in space 90 from coils 28 and 33 which, through the reactance 37 derives current from wires 23 and 35 connected to secondary 15.

The rotor 38 of the induction motor is represented as of the shell type and therefore extremely light and of very slight in ertia and can be made to rotate at'an extremely high speed and furthermore does not tend to become locked by unchanging magnetic flux passing from the stator to the inclosed magnetizable stationary armature core, so that direct current entering the stator coils would not have an effect such as would cause the signal to stick clear. As the shell armature can be made to rotate at an extremely high speed a very largev gear ratio may be used between the armature and the signal, in practice 1 toabout 500 has been found to be of universal applicability, although if occasion requires no reasons are now known why the ratio could not be increased to 1 to 1,000, or be lowered to suit a particular situation.

The block sections formed by the insulating joints are designated by A, B and C, and a car is represented as traveling on the rails of block B,the relay contact consequently 100 open, the signal at danger and the circuit breaker 31 closed.

In .Fig. 2 the signaling current is represented as being derived from a three phase three wire system coming from a generator 1 5 with the ordinary delta connection 39. The track circuit is fed by one phase from wires 40 and 41 through a transformer secondary 42, as was .the case in the system illustrated by Fig. 1; coils 26 and 36 are fed-through 11 thetransformer secondary 43 which has its primary fed by the phase supplied by wires 41 and 44; coils 22 and 33 are fed from secondary 45 of a transformer connected to the wires 40. and 44 supplying a third phase; 115 coil 28 is connected to the secondary 46 fed from the phase supplied by wires40 and 41, and as was shown in Fig. 1 hasa circuit breaker 31 in series with it and a resistance in series with it which is in parallel to the 120 circuit breaker.

In Fig. 3 is shown the old and well known track circuit used to govern a relay as 47; 48 designates an armature controlled by the re-- lay which when in its upper position makes 125 contact with wire 49 which is in series with both a resistance 50 and acircuit breaker 51, controlled by the semaphore 29 and which is open when the signal is at clear, the resistance 50 and circuit breaker 51 being in parl3i1 allel; 52 designates a wire leading from the junction of resistance 50 and breaker 51 to the field coil 53 of a motor, the other end of the coil being connected by wire 54 to armature 55, the other side of the armature being connected by means of the wire 56 to battery 57, the other side of the battery being connected by means of the wire 58 to the pivotal point of the armature 48; thus a complete circuit is formed for the operation of the motor when the track section is unoccupied by a train and the relay 47 is energized. A current from the battery 57 constantly passes by means of the wire 59 to and through the field coil 60 through the wire 61 connected to armature 55 then through the armature and by means of the Wire 56 to the other side of the battery.

Fig. 4 illustrates an application of the invention employing a three wire three phase system as illustrated by Fig. 2, but unlike the application shown in Fig. 2 makes use of a split phase relay and semaphore motor; 40, 44 and 41 designate the three feed wires used to supply signaling current to the signaling devices; 45 designates the secondary of a transformer connected across the wires 40 and 44, which isused to energize the two coils of the stator of the semaphore motor 33 and 36, and in which the currents are displaced in phase although coming from the same source, namely, the secondary winding 45 by means of the ohmic resistance 62 and the reactance 63; coils 22 and 26 of the relay device likewise derive current from the sec ondary 45 and are'connected in multiple, but have the currents traversing them displaced in phase by means of the ohmic resistance 64 and the reactance 65. The coil 28 is wound reversely to the coil 33 and derives current for its energization from the secondary 66 of a transformer, the primary of which is connected across the Wires 40 and 44.

By Fig. 5 is shown a form of coupling between the mechanism actuated shaft 67 and the semaphore actuating shaft 68 shown in Fig. 6. This coupling member which is fully shown, described and claimed in applicants copending application Serial No. 564,017, filed May 28, 1910, consists of two disks 69 and 70, which disks have cut out portions as 69 and 70 011 each side, thereby forming a pocket in which the intermediate driver 71 is placed, thls driver being made of such a size that the arc bounding its outer surface is 10 shorter than the length of the are between the two shoulders of the recesses 69 and 7 0 so that as regards either of the disks 69 and 7 0 it has a free movement of 10, thus giving a total independent movement of disks 69 and 70 of 20. That is when the motor 72 starts to rotate a pinion connected to its shaft starts disk 69 in rota tion, which disk rotates 10 before a shoulder of the cavity 69 comes into engagement with the block 71, then after engagement has taken place it rotates through a further arc of 10 before the block 71 comes into engagement, with the shoulder bounding the cavity 70 of the disk 70. hen the semaphore returns to normal position after having been placed in the clear position by the action of the motor, the disk .70 would as soon as the movement to return began exert pressure on the block '71, and at the same time exert pressure on the disk 69, as at that time the parts are all rotated in one direction as far as they can go. It will thus be seen that like the ordinary and well known semaphore mechanism in use, before the semaphore could move in the slightest degree toward the normal position, the whole train of mechanism connecting it with the motor must move. If, however, the motor was rotated backwardly before any movement of the semaphore took place disk 69 would rotate through 10 coming in contact with block 71, and together with block 71 would rotate through a further arc of 10, then coming in contact with disk 70 a. further movement causing the semaphore to assume the normal danger position.

Operati0n.The normal position of the parts as shown in Fig. 1 is with the semaphore 29 at clear and the relay contact 21 making contact with the wire 23, which position of parts is caused by a flow of current along the rails 1 and 2 derived from the transformer secondary 14. This current passing through'the coil 19 causes a counter clock-wise rotation of armature 21 co-acting to do this with the coil 22, but in so doing it is obliged to over-come the tendency of coil 26 co-acting with coil 22 to rotate the armature in a clock-wise direction, but it is enabled to overcome the tendency of coils 22 and 26 by virtue of the fact that it contains a greater number of turns than coil 26, or has sufficient current flowing through it. Nhen the armature 21 makes contact with the wire 23 the coil 28 is energized and co-acting with the coil 36 causes the armature 38 to rotate clock-wise, but in order to do this it has to overcome the tendency ofthe coils 33 and 36 acting together to rotate the armature counter clock-wise, but it is enabled to do this by virtue of the fact that it has more turns than coil 33 or has more current flowing through it, either of which would give a greater turning torque by coil 28 than by coil 33. lVhen the signal 29 is at clear the circuit breaker 31 is open, causing all current which reaches the coil 28 to flow through the inductive resistance 32, which causes the current passing through, the coil 28 to be reduced to an amount just suflicient to overcome the tendency ofthe semaphore 29 to return to danger position due to the action of gravity and the action of coils 33 and 36.

When a train enters upon a block section as shown at 4: in block B the current which normally passes through the coil 19 is shunted through the wheels and axles of the car so that the tendency of coil 19 coacting with coil 22 to rotate the armature 21 in a counter clockwise direction is destroyed, so that the tendency of coils 22 and 26 to rotate the armature 21 in a clock-wise direction acts unimpeded, consequently the armature contact 21 moves from its position in contact with wire 23, thereby breaking the circuit through the coil 28. The tendency of coil 28 to rotate and hold the signal in the clear position against the action of coils 33 and 36 is thereby destroyed and the tendency of coils 33 and 36 to rotate the signal to the danger position acts unimpeded and positively carries the semaphore to the danger position, at the same time closing the circuit breaker 31 so that upon a re-closing of armature contact 21 the current through the coil 28 can flow unimpeded around the inductive resistance 32, thus enabling the coil 28 to exert a greater turning torque in taking the semaphore to clear position than it exerts while holding it there.

The operation of the arrangement shown in Figs. 2 and 4 is identical with the above described operation of the arrangement as shown in Fig. 1.

In the arrangement as shown by Fig. 3, if the signal 29 is at danger and the relay e7 is then energized and the armature 4:8 lifted so as to make contact with the wire 49 current would then flow from the battery 57 through the wire 58 to and through armature 48 to wire 49 through circuit breaker 51 which would be closed when the signal was at danger then through the wire 52, field coil 53, wire 54;, armature 55 and wire 56 to the other side of the battery. T he direction which the current would take through the field coil 52 would cause a rotation of the armature 55 in a direction to clear the signal, but such rotation would take place against the tendency of the permanently closed circuit formed by wire 59, field coil 60, wire 61, armature 55, wire 56 and the battery 57, which causes current to flow through the field coil 60 in such a direction as to cause opposite magnetization of the fields of the motor to that caused by the current which passes through field coil 53, and as the current which passes through the field coil 60 passes through armature 55 in the same direction as it does when coming through wire 54 from field coil 53, the armature 55 would thus have a tendency to rotate in a direction to carry the signal to danger, so that a constant tendency exists to move the signal to danger which must be overcome when the signal is moved to the clear position, consequently ifthe means, for

obtained.

moving the signal tothe clear position at that time become inoperative the signal is moved positively to the danger position.

It is to be observed in the arrangement shown in Figs. land 4, a failure of the common wires 23 and 35 running to the motor which actuates the signal would not only destroy the returning torque of the motor, but would also destroy the power of the motor to clear the signal, so that a failure of either of these wires would immediately be discovered by the fact that the signal would be at danger with no train in the block.

The combination of a power return signal with the coupling device shown in Figs. 5 and 6, is of great merit, for by such a combination a heretofore undiscovered result is By the use of the coupling as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the motor has a certain free travel to attain speed before actually moving the semaphore, but when the semaphore, by action of gravity, returns to normal position as heretofore, there would be no free motion between the semaphore and the motor, but both would be constrained to begin turning backward at the same instant, but by the use of this invention, when the current which holds the semaphore at clear ceases, the motor immediately begins to turn backward carrying with it the train of gearing between the motor and the coupling, causing disk 69 to first rotate freely through an arc of 10 coming in contact with the block 71, the two together then rotating through a further arc of 10 and at the end of such movement coming in contact with disk 70 to rotate the semaphore arm to the danger position, but the free movement of 20 of the semaphore actuating mechanism between the disk 70 and the motor 72 has allowed the armature of the motor 72 to acquire such a'speed that a hammer blow is imparted to disk 70 and so to the semaphore when the block 71 comes in contact with the disk 70, which will cer tainly loosen the semaphore if stuck in the clear position by reason of the fact that it has been subjected to the elements for a very long period of time while in the clear position.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to exact details of connections and arrangements and construction shown and described for obvious modifications will occur to persons skilled in the art.

Having particularly described the construction and arrangement and an embodiment of my invention and explained the operation and principle thereof, what I claim to be new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a signal actuating mechanism, means to clear the signal and electrical means con stantly-tending to set the signal at danger.

ing two or more coils connected with the.

source of current to clear the signal, and

means comprising two or more coils constantly energized and tending to set the signal at danger.

8. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current and means operated by the flowof current from said source to clear the signal, and means operated from the same source of current constantly tending to set the signal at danger.

4. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means energized from said source to clear a signal, a coupling interposed between the means and the signal having a free movement between the several parts; means constantly energized from the said source of current acting through said coupling to return the signal to danger after the free movement between the several parts of the coupling has taken place.

5. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means energized from the source to clear the signal, electrically energized means constantly tending to set the signal at danger.

6. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means to set the signal in one position, means energized from said source constantly tending to set it in another position.

7. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means energized from said source constantly tending to set the signal in one position, means energized from said source to over-power said first mentioned means and set the signal in another position.

8. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means energized from said source constantly tending to set the signal in one position, means energized from said source to over-power said first mentioned means and set the signal in another position and hold it there.

9. In a signal actuating mechanism, a signal, a source of current, means energized from said source constantly tending to hold the signal in one position and to return it to that position if displaced, means energized from said source capable of over-powering said first named means to set the signal in another position, and hold it there.

10. In a signal controlling apparatus, a source of current, a signal, a means energized from the source to set the signal in one position, means constantly acting to set the signal in another position, means energized from the source acting when the signal is in one position to cause the first mentioned means to act, and means energized from the source constantly tending to prevent such action.

WIN'IHROP K. HOWE.

Witnesses:

LILLIAN L. PHILLIPS, MARY G. DALBEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

